Haunted hotel guide · Lebanon, Ohio

The Haunted Golden Lamb, Lebanon: Sarah Stubbs and Ohio's Oldest Inn

Ohio’s oldest inn has been taking in travelers since 1803, and some of them, guests say, never checked out. Here are the stories, the rooms to ask for and what to know before you book.

By The Haunted Rooms Team · Updated November 2026 · How we rate hotels

4.2/5Haunted Rooms Score
1803Year opened
17Guest rooms, each named for a famous visitor

Visit hotel websiteMeet the ghosts

The Golden Lamb stands on Broadway in Lebanon, the county seat of Warren County, about halfway between Cincinnati and Dayton. Jonas Seaman paid $4 for a license to run a “house of Public Entertainment” here in 1803, and the inn has fed and lodged travelers ever since. It calls itself Ohio’s oldest continuously operating business, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 2026 it is celebrating 100 years of ownership by the same family.

It also has one of the best-known ghost traditions in the state, and the inn tells the stories itself. Food Network once named it Ohio’s most haunted restaurant. The cast includes a little girl usually identified as Sarah Stubbs, an Ohio Supreme Court justice who died here in 1829 and a congressman who shot himself by accident while preparing a murder defense. This guide brings together what the inn, historians and guests have said, with the history behind each story and practical tips for a stay. For more in the area see our guides to haunted places in Cincinnati and haunted places in Dayton.

The Golden Lamb at a glance

4.2/5
Haunted Rooms Score
Haunted reputation4
History5
Ghost hunter access4
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
  • Address 27 South Broadway, Lebanon, OH 45036
  • Opened 1803, by Jonas Seaman; present brick building from Ichabod Corwin’s 1815 rebuild
  • Most haunted spots Sarah’s room on the fourth floor, the Vallandigham room on the second floor, the hallways and the main staircase
  • Best-known ghosts A little girl usually named as Sarah Stubbs (some say Eliza Clay), Justice Charles R. Sherman and Clement Vallandigham
  • Booking the haunted room Every room is named for a famous guest, so you can ask for the Vallandigham room by name. Book on the inn’s website or call (513) 932-5065
  • Good to know No elevator: rooms are on the second to fourth floors. Check-in 4 pm, check-out 10:30 am. Reservations open six months ahead

Visit hotel website

The ghosts of The Golden Lamb

Sarah Stubbs, the little girl

The inn’s best-known ghost is a small girl seen in the halls and on the stairs. She is usually identified as Sarah Stubbs, who lived at the Golden Lamb in the 1800s while her uncle ran it. Sarah grew up, left, married and lived to 79, yet the girl people describe looks about five years old. Local historian John Zimkus told Ohio Magazine that some believe a spirit can return at the age of a traumatic event: “In her case, when she’s five, her dad dies and she loses her home.”

Ohio Magazine collected three stories that are still told. A guest felt a small girl stroking her fur coat; when she told the child to stop, the girl wandered off and was not seen again. A man who tripped outside his room heard a young girl laughing at him in an empty hallway. And a family waiting for a table watched their son ask to play with a little girl on the stairs, but when the parents looked where he was pointing, nobody was there.

Or is she Eliza Clay?

Not everyone agrees the girl is Sarah. The inn notes that some believe she is Eliza Clay, daughter of Henry Clay, then Secretary of State. Twelve-year-old Eliza fell ill while the family was traveling from Lexington, Kentucky, to Washington, and she died in Lebanon on August 11, 1825. The inn’s own telling says she died at the Golden Lamb, but an 1894 article in Lebanon’s Western Star placed her death at the old Ferguson tavern on Main Street, so the records do not settle it. She was buried in Lebanon, far from home, which is why some feel she is the one who lingers.

Justice Charles R. Sherman

Charles R. Sherman, a justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, fell ill and died suddenly while holding court in Lebanon on June 24, 1829. The inn says he died there at 41; the Supreme Court of Ohio’s biography gives a birth date that makes him 40. His death left his wife and eleven children, one of them the future Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman, without money, and most of the children were taken in by other families. The inn says some guests believe guilt keeps him here.

Heritage Ohio’s version of the story describes a gray, gaunt man walking the hallways and a smell of cigar smoke with no smoker in sight. It is a story, not a record, but it is one the staff have heard many times.

Clement Vallandigham

Clement L. Vallandigham was an Ohio congressman and the leader of the Copperheads, the Northern faction that opposed the Civil War. In 1871 he was in Lebanon defending Thomas McGehean, accused of shooting a man in a saloon brawl. Vallandigham meant to show the jury that the victim could have shot himself while drawing his own pistol. Believing the gun was unloaded, he demonstrated in his room at the inn and shot himself in the abdomen. He died on June 17, 1871.

The second-floor room where it happened now carries his name, and the inn says there have been several reports over the years of a man matching his description.

Laughter, footsteps and cigar smoke

Beyond the named ghosts, the reports are the classic old-inn kind: a child laughing in an empty corridor, footsteps on the stairs, a whiff of cigar smoke and the feeling of being watched in the quieter upper floors. Most come from guests and staff over many years rather than any single dramatic event, which is part of the inn’s charm.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

  • The Vallandigham room: The second-floor room named for Clement Vallandigham, where he shot himself in 1871. The inn links reports of a man matching his description to this room. Ask for it by name.
  • Sarah's room (fourth floor): A recreation of Sarah Stubbs’s room is part of the fourth-floor museum rooms, which show the inn’s past innkeepers and its Shaker collection. You can look in even if you are not staying.
  • Hallways and main staircase: Where guests report the little girl, her laughter and the gaunt man linked to Justice Sherman.
  • The upper floors: All 17 guest rooms are on the second, third and fourth floors, each named for a famous visitor. The higher floors are quieter at night.

History of The Golden Lamb

Lebanon was newly founded when Jonas Seaman, from New Jersey, opened a log tavern on its main street in 1803. The name came from the golden lamb painted on the sign, a practical choice when many travelers could not read. Debts forced Seaman to sell in the 1810s, and Ichabod Corwin, one of Lebanon’s founders, replaced the log building with a brick inn in 1815. The present building grew from Corwin’s, and over the years it was also known as the Bradley House, the Lebanon House and the Stubbs House.

The guest list over two centuries is remarkable. The inn counts twelve presidents, among them William Henry Harrison, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, William McKinley, Warren G. Harding, William Howard Taft, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Daniel Webster and Henry Clay stayed too, and the guest rooms are named after visitors like these.

In 1926 Robert Jones, grandfather of the future senator Rob Portman, leased the inn, and in 1927 he refurbished it and furnished it with Shaker pieces. In 1969 the restaurant was leased to the Comisar family, who ran Cincinnati’s famous Maisonette. The Portman family still owns the Golden Lamb, and 2026 marks 100 years of family ownership.

The inn was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 12, 1978. Today it has 17 guest rooms over four floors, a restaurant with three public dining rooms and several private ones, the Black Horse Tavern and a gift shop. The fourth-floor museum rooms, including the recreation of Sarah’s room, tell the story of its innkeepers and its Shaker collection.

Tips for a haunted stay

  • Book directly with the inn if you want a particular room: rooms are named, so ask for the Vallandigham room or a fourth-floor room. Reservations open six months ahead and a credit card is required.
  • There is no elevator, so pack light if you are on the fourth floor.
  • Even if you are not staying, have dinner and walk up to the fourth-floor museum rooms to see Sarah’s room.
  • Dress code applies in the dining rooms: smart casual, no tank tops or gym wear.
  • Cancellations need 48 hours’ notice or you pay for the whole stay.
  • Pair your stay with a night at Cincinnati’s haunted Netherland Plaza, about 45 minutes south.

Want to investigate, not just sleep?

Sleeping in a haunted hotel is one thing. Investigating one after dark is another. On a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt our team takes you through the building with professional ghost hunting equipment, runs EVP sessions and lets you explore on your own during free roam.

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Frequently asked questions

Is the Golden Lamb haunted?

It has one of Ohio’s best-known ghost traditions, and the inn tells the stories itself. Guests and staff describe a little girl on the stairs, a child laughing in empty halls, cigar smoke and a gaunt man in the corridors. Treat them as stories rather than proof.

Who haunts the Golden Lamb?

The ghosts most often named are a little girl usually identified as Sarah Stubbs (some say Eliza Clay, who died in Lebanon in 1825), Justice Charles R. Sherman, who died here in 1829, and Clement Vallandigham, who shot himself by accident in 1871.

Can you stay in Sarah's room at the Golden Lamb?

Sarah’s room is a recreation within the fourth-floor museum rooms, which you can look into, rather than a bookable guest room. The Vallandigham room and other named rooms can be requested when you book.

How old is the Golden Lamb?

It opened in 1803, the year Ohio became a state, and calls itself Ohio’s oldest continuously operating business. The present brick building dates from 1815 onward.

Which presidents stayed at the Golden Lamb?

Twelve, including William Henry Harrison, John Quincy Adams, Ulysses S. Grant, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

Does the Golden Lamb have an elevator?

No. All 17 rooms are on the second, third and fourth floors and are reached by stairs.

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.

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About the authors

The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every hotel in our guides using hotel histories, local archives, news coverage and the accounts of guests and staff, and we review each guide regularly so you are not booking a hotel that has closed or changed its name. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.

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